Mathew
Tombers is the President of Intermat,
Inc., a consulting practice that specializes in the intersection
of media, technology and marketing. For two years, he produced
the Emmys on the Web and supervised web related activities for
the Academy, including for the 50th Anniversary year of the
Emmy Awards. In addition to its consulting engagements, Intermat
recently sold METEORS TALE, an unpublished novel by Michael
ORourke, to Animal Planet for development as a television
movie. Visit his
web site at http://www.intermat.tv

Sports, Politics and Distractions

I generally keep a fairly neat desk  but right now
it is stacked with piles of folders, videos and all the other
detritus of very busy days.

The week has been punctuated by many things  nothing
so large as Arnold. We generally end the day by watching the
BBC News on WLIW 21, one of the PBS stations here in New York,
to catch a more global view than we might get from the local
New York stations.

When Arnold was the lead story on the BBC, complete with
reporters on the scene, I knew that the big story of the American
Week was the BIG story of the global week. The extraordinary
 in every sense  California Recall and election
had become the center of global attention.

When we drifted off to sleep on Tuesday night, Arnold was
not the declared winner but was by the time my radio went
off to wake me the next morning.

Arnold is Governor.

This is going to be interesting.

The other news of the week that really grabbed me was that
Red Sox fans seem to be going to mystical extremes to break
The Curse of the Bambino  the shadow that
has hung over the Boston Red Sox ever since their team owner
sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees so that he could afford to produce
No, No, Nanette on Broadway.

So at the grave of the Babe, Red Sox fans have been gathering,
leaving offerings to the Babe to get him to withdraw his curse
so that the Red Sox could finally  after nearly a century
 manage to make it into the Pennant Race. Left on his
tombstone have been Red Sox caps, candles, flowers, Baby Ruth
bars -- you name it, theyre leaving it. This is the
best its been in anyones memories and die hard fans
are leaving no stone unturned in working on the powers that
might be to see if there is something that can be done for
the Red Sox in this round.

It is almost drowning out the noise of the Yankees on their
march to the Pennant.

I dont pay much attention to any of this though
I will confess that when I was with friends on Monday evening
I found myself, unexpectedly, totally engrossed in the 4th
quarter marathon of the Colts vs. The Buccaneers. I probably
wouldnt have been engaged if I had not seen a dance
elegant move on the part of a Colt team member who rescued
the football on a bounce and then went on to help his team
score. It was one of the most elegant performance moments
Ive ever seen.

But thats not what I see often and so I dont
follow sports much.

Though I cant ignore it as it is now on the front
pages of every paper  except the Times, which generally
relegates such ordinary things as sports to a back page, which
is one of the reasons I am so quietly fond of the Times.

We are still quietly drifting through the fall, concentrating
on all the ordinary things of the season as opposed to all
the things that are banging at the back doors of our brains.

It is a strange season, this season of Arnold, which is
our center of attention, followed by the spells that Red Sox
fans are weaving at the tomb of the Babe, followed by another
errant priest who stole money from his weekend flock while
collecting gay porn and Nazi memorabilia.

All of this, I suspect, is our psychic protection from the
events beyond the borders of our country that seems so out
of our control and therefore, if we ignore them, may be they
will go away.